One peculiarity of the Swahili language is that both Wednesday and Thursday mean the same thing but in different languages. Jumatano means the fifth day of the week in Kiswahili. Alhamisi- from the Arabic word ‘Khamsa’- also translates to the fifth weekday. Let’s take a tour exploring how the days of the week were named in various languages.

We’ll start with Arabic. It seems that on a random day centuries ago a guy somewhere in the Middle East or Eastern Africa got bored of having nameless days and started counting them. He named the day he started counting yawmul ahad- meaning the first day. Yawmul ahad is Sunday in Arabic. The next day he continued counting. He called it Yawmul Thanii or Al-ithnayn meaning the second day of the week. The third day he called it Yawmul Thaalith or Al-thulathaa. Fourth day became Yawmul Raabi3 or Al-Arbi3aa. For some reason, the counting stops on the fifth day, Yawmul khaamis or Al-Khamis.

The two remaining days are named after social events. Al-Jumuah (Friday) means congregation (for prayers??) and Al-Sabt (Saturday) is named after the Sabbath. The Somali language shamelessly plagiarizes all of these names. Or it could be that the Arabic language is the culprit; no one knows for sure. But the Swahili language, despite the influence of Arabic, gets more creative.

First, five of the names of the days are in Kiswahili: Jumamosi to Jumatano. Only Alhamisi (originally Yawmul Khaamis) and Ijumaa(originally Al-Jumuah) are in Arabic. Second, in the Swahili language counting the days of the week starts on Saturday, not Sunday as in the Arabic week. Jumamosi (Saturday) is the first day of the week. But then the change in language from the Kiswahili ‘Jumatano’ to the Arabic ‘Alhamisi’ causes a hilarious repetition.

Heading over to Europe, most languages there have days that were named after the seven visible ‘wandering’ celestial bodies that could be seen with the naked eye from Earth. These were the sun, moon, Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. In Romance languages like French and Spanish, the names remained unchanged.

| WEEK | LATIN | SPANISH | FRENCH | |----------------|--------------|-----------|----------| | Saturnday | Dies Saturni | Sábado | Samedi | | Sunday | Dies Solis | Domingo | Dimanche | | Moonday | Dies Lunae | Lunes | Lundi | | Marsday | Dies Martis | Martes | Mardi | | Mercuryday | Dies Mercuri | Miércoles | Mercredi | | Jupiterday | Dies lovis | Jueves | Jeudi | | Venusday | Dies Veneris | Viernes | Vendredi |

However, the linguistically rebellious Northern Europeans made a few blasphemous changes. Namely, they replaced some of the names of the Roman or Greek gods, after whom the planets are named, with their local gods.

**PLANETARY WEEK** | **MODIFIED** --------------------|------------------------------------------ **Moonday** | - **Marsday** | Tiesdag - Tiw's day **Mercuryday** | Wodnesdag=Woden's / Ödinn's day **Jupiterday** | Punresdag \- Thor's day /Thunder's day **Venusday** | Frigedag - Frige's day **Saturnday** | Saturnesdag **Sunday** | Sunnandag

So, there you have it. Have a beautifully-named day.